Nearly 85 per cent of India's train coaches are not equipped with anti-telescoping features, making them death traps in case of an accidents like the Rajendranagar-Indore Express derailment on Sunday. An action plan to remedy the situation was discussed at an emergency meeting of the Railway Board on Monday.
The Rajendranagar-Indore Express, which derailed near Kanpur on Sunday, had Integral Coach Factory (ICF) rakes which turned turtle and telescoped into each other after jumping off the rails, claiming at least 148 lives.
Around 53,000 of the 63,000 rail coaches in operation are the old ICF rakes without anti-telescopic features which would prevent them from toppling over and piling on top of one another in the event of an accident or derailment, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
“We have decided to expedite the replacement of ICF coaches with LHB coaches. Retrofitting these old coaches with anti-climbing feature was not seen as a feasible option as it can happen only during the mid-life cycle of the coaches,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.
“Three of the four coaches of the Indore-Patna Express piled up. Most of the deaths in case of derailments take place because the coaches climb on each other,” the official said.
Advanced LHB coaches
There are only around 8,000 Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches in operations so far, mostly in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. The LHB coaches have anti-telescoping features and advanced coupling systems which prevent rakes from climbing onto to each other.
The Indian Railways has also decided not to produce any more ICF coaches from 2018, the official said. Only 1,248 out of total 4,095 coaches produced in 2015-16 were LHB rakes though as early as 2012, the Anil Kakodkar high-level committee on railway safety had suggested switching over to LHB coaches completely.
The Kakodkar panel had observed that ICF coaches were not desirable from the safety point of view at the present operational speed of 100-120 kmph.
The committee further highlighted that none of the passengers were hurt following the derailment of Bhubneshwar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express with LHB coaches in 2010.
Among other measures, the Railway Board decided to increase the frequency of its ultrasonic fault detection test to detect rail fractures from monthly to bi-weekly exercise, the official said.
On Tuesday, the Railways transferred Jhansi’s Divisional Railway Manager to Ranchi and suspended divisional head of coaches and tracks along with their subordinates.
